Shilah Writes

What a weird week...It held a little bit of everything. Monday after school was a trip to the thrift store...The girls have inherited my love of books. Their shelves are full. I think it might be a little strange, but I love to look at shelves of books. To me it is a thing of beauty. I love the colors of the spines, the spell of old paper, the dog ears, and coffee rings sometimes smudged in their pages. Teacher meeting was a little shorter Tuesday afternoon so I came home and puttered around outside re-potting plants and making my front porch look like spring. It still needs some fixing...remodeling happens slowly these days, but you are still welcome to come sit here with me for a glass of lemonade this summer. Bruce got his first smart phone this week so we spent an evening texting selfies and emojis to each other while he was at work. I tell you, the things people will do after 40! It was fun. I kinda got into it...notice the studious kids in the back...

Yesterday after school I took a walk around the block to snatch a picture of this forsythia tree...  School whizzed by this week and when 3:00 p.m. arrived I locked up the classroom and left...Which means we will have to go back today to do the cleaning. It's OK, we have to clean the church auditorium too. And the house. And we need to get Laife's pictures made so I can send out the graduation invites to the relatives. The girls want to go to the thrift stores...hopefully I can find a collage frame there for graduation table. It's getting very Spring though, I might scratch as much as I can from that list and go dig in the dirt. That would be the best thing...   I have a couple writing assignments due and can't find the inspiration to do it. It is the fault of life. Not mine. :) I'd much rather talk about my kids and about how to be a good mom to them while I still have them. Because all this cramming, trying to graduate, has given me a host more gray ...

I don't know why this winter, Jesus led me to the words he spoke to the Pharisees... as if winter isn't hard enough, but He did. Often. And every time I would walk away with the words, 'Beware of the leaven of the Pharisees', ringing in my ears. Before, I would read over these words of Christ and stop only long enough to convince myself that this could not be me. I would never reject Christ... I believed all  His words... I was good with changes and getting rid of old, comfortable ways. I  was not more concerned with the outward over the inward. The list of the leaven of the Pharisees goes on and on... Reasons that brought about all this soul searching were many. The church I attend has gone through some growing pains. In the last year, we have lost one of our pastors due to the commitments we in our plain groups are bound to have and promote. We have also had to pray for another pastor and have an ordination...more soul searching...We are going through the E...

A beautiful woman uses her lips for truth, her voice for kindness, her ears for compassion, her hands for charity and her heart for love. For those who do not like her, she uses prayer.    ~ Unknown Let me just say; I love this quote. It is my heart's cry currently. It speaks to every corner of injustice in my life and it explains what I believe to be one of my biggest passions. Confession coming now: I have been sick. So sick I was opposite of all this quote says. I was ugly...(You  can't be beautiful when you can't breathe, when your skin feels like it is going to burn up and fall off from fever or when you can't find the strength for a shower.)  I wasn't kind to my people...(I know because they finally all told me by getting in my face and saying.) We're blunt like that at this house. Can you feel the love tonight? My ears became open to compassion and I heard them...Mark one up for the sick lady folks! The hands for charity would be the washi...

If there is one disadvantage we as Bible thumping believers might have; it would be the inclination for us to feel we have the inside scoop on what's what. We have this inclination because w e have been taught and exhorted in every Biblical principal man was able to find and interpret. Our forefathers saw to that.  They saw the need for those of our faith to get away from the belief that only Priests and Popes were worthy to read the Holy Scriptures and to interpret them to ordinary people. And aren't we glad they did?  However, along they way, a certain strength begins to grow into a pattern and we become confident in what we know to be the most righteous ways of doing things. We get blinders on and have trouble seeing/hearing the teachings of Christ in our endeavors to being a holy set apart people. We tend to think we can only be a missionary if we are in a foreign country and living a miserly, miserable life. We become overly cautious to keeping traditions goin...

Some of you will fuss and fume but I needed to update this blog. Please be patient with me while we both get used to this new look. You can still find all my favorite blogs and about me if you poke around long enough. I am a little nervous about how to get in to write a new post...it seems I have lost my design and editing button with this new format. I guess that's the kinda thing you get when you demand change. I also felt the need to explain why it is that all my latest posts have dubbed me "Sailing Shy Lady". It's a pain but there is a reason.  A year ago, Bruce and I purchased a sail boat whom we named "Shy Lady". This winter the two of us pulled our boat down to the Sea of Cortez and had a lovely 20th anniversary trip. When we arrived home, my exuberant husband felt the need to share with the world of 'YouTube' our videos...thus the need for a name under our profile that would also work for directing people toward the link. No doubt if we...

It is a sad fact that I spent the first fifteen years of our family's history trying to figure out if we were a "real" family. From the beginning of our marriage I often wondered, are we a family yet?  I mean, before kids arrive, are you really a family yet? Somewhere in the confusion of having babies and being up all hours of the night; I still didn't know. Real living kept throwing me off. It kinda felt like, after the living room is cleaned, we can be a family. Or, when I figure out how to do the laundry and cleaning and meals in one day then... I will deem myself "good enough" to be called Mom and Wife of my family, then... I will be part of a real family.  I also made the mistake of having ideals that seemed perfectly normal to me. Ideals such as...Real families, spent a good hour every morning reading the Bible together and discussing world events after which they pray together. Real families spend every minute possible with each other. Real ...